What "third generation" Trek is worth watching?

I started with Star Trek after watching the Star Trek (2009) movie in college. After that I went wild watching everything I could since I was young with loads of time. I watched most of TOS, all of TNS, all of DS9, all of Voyager, all of Enterprise and all of the movies. I then stopped since I didn't have the time and wasn't ready to download a new app to watch Discovery.

I am interested in watching some of the new shows from Discovery onwards but don't know where to start and what are worth watching. I no longer have hours to watch TV or movies anymore and want to prioritize series on an easy to find streaming service. What is worth watching and what is worth skipping? Is it worth while to watch them all the way chronically or just watch one series and then another one.

tymon,

As a purist, I'd say watch them all and in release order, but if you really have to be choosy with your time, here's a list of things you can skip (in my opinion):

  • Star Trek Into Darkness
  • Discovery (whole show)
  • Picard S1 and S2
  • Short Treks

I know suggesting skipping Discovery outright is going to be seen as... extreme, but I suggest doing so only if time is a crucial factor. It's a dizzyingly uneven show with the lowest points of quality in all of Trek. However, it also has some incredible highs and some truly great characters, so if you find the time to watch it, you should. And I know I'm in the minority on this, but I found Short Treks to be unwatchable.

On the flip side, Lower Decks is incredible, and Strange New Worlds is good. The third season of Picard is excellent. Prodigy is a little weird but it's got a lot of strength. Star Trek Beyond is also a surprisingly good movie.

JoYo,
JoYo avatar

I'm on the last seasons of Discovery.

I avoided it for a long time because of reviews.

The portrayal of toxic relationships is interesting and even rewarding at times, it's just not why I watch star trek.

dumples,
dumples avatar

Trek is great with big hard concepts but work best with philosophy concepts instead of personal relationships

theinspectorst,
theinspectorst avatar

I would say Discovery season 2 is worth watching - it's the show's strongest season, it's fairly self-contained, and it sets up Anson Mount's depiction of Pike ahead of the excellent Strange New Worlds (including explaining the specific context for SNW's first couple of episodes).

pemboification,

Agree with this, especially skipping Picard S1 & S2. I feel the showrunner(s) definitely agree too, as S3 is a standalone story and ignores many of the developments introduced in the previous seasons. While I also didn't completely love Season 3 it sits head and shoulders above the first two in every way.

admiralteal,

I think Picard S1 was watchable. It had some neat stuff in it. But it is not a high point for the franchise by any means. It felt like an adaptation of some Arthur Clarke doomsday short story or something but stretched out until the breaking point.

S2 left a bad taste in my mouth. It was just kind of pointless and dumb. I enjoyed the characters very much, but the actual story was pretty damn rough. Storylines involving any kind of time travel are nearly universally awful across the whole genre and the mirror dimension getting played for anything other than camp makes me a bit queasy. At some point, I wondered if they were just trying to undo some of the damage Voyager did to the Borg lore, but they were actually spending more time doubling down on it so that can't be it.

Also, the world felt SO small. Star Trek always makes the galaxy feel smaller than it means to just because of the natural limits of casting, writing, and fandom, but Picard S1 and S2 are both excruciatingly tiny universes with so few important players. As a result, I haven't watched S3. I'm hearing it's way better, but I have to work myself up to giving it another try.

Both share a flaw with Discovery: it just doesn't feel like Star Trek. All three shows are trying to be big, dramatic, high-tension, cliffhanger-ending space epics for binging. Modern streaming shows, basically. And the best of Star Trek is nothing like that. My sibling could never get into Star Trek. Started with TNG. Their complaint was that it felt like watching stage plays at the local theater. That they were constantly aware of how this was just a bunch of people talking at each other on a set. There was all philosophy and cerebral-ness and drama and very little action, and the plotlines often resolved without an unambiguously right answer. They're totally right, and that's what makes me love the show and why I don't feel strongly about Picard and Discovery.

dumples,
dumples avatar

All of the best episodes are about strange or philosophical concepts about what it means to be human. It is mostly some talking with a single concept holding it together. I enjoy some action but only in small doses. That is what TOS did the best

LibraryLass,

It’s a dizzyingly uneven show with the lowest points of quality in all of Trek.

Dude I've seen TNG season 1 and Enterprise seasons 1-2. I know we both know it can get worse.

tymon,

Okay, I'll give you Code of Honor.

beefcat, (edited )
beefcat avatar

TOS also has some truly awful episodes, but it's pretty easy to ignore them.

I think the low points of DSC and PIC stick out for two reasons:

  1. Recency bias. It's been 15 years since I last watched Code of Honor, and I rarely even think about it except when it's time to make memes about season 1.
  2. Serialization. You can watch TNG, skip bad episodes like Code of Honor or Sub Rosa, and not really lose out on anything. But if you watch DSC and skip a bad episode, you blow a giant gaping hole in the over-arching story.
raphael_fl,

@beefcat @dumples @tymon @LibraryLass That last point is one of the problems with arc-centered shows

AlteredStateBlob, (edited )
AlteredStateBlob avatar

Man. Very well put. Very, very well put. I'm so sad that Discovery was as it was. It's not Star Trek to me. I was excited to see how it started out. Things I wanted to see ever since I was a kid. And then it just doesn't do what Star Trek is supposed to do.

To me in each episode (or episode arc) we need an internal and external problem that have no apparent solutions and are worked out towards the end of it all. Self-Contained episodes with ongoing character changes and evolution. Not... "dark gritty" whatever the heck this is.

I'd also strongly suggest watching The Orville @dumples That's the most Star Trek show in the past few years, despite being a bit more light hearted. Heck, even Avenue 5 is worth a watch to scratch some of that Star Trek itch.

wanderinglens,

@AlteredStateBlob @dumples @tymon also despite it being a Seth McFarlane product, The Orville is very much not "Family Guy In Space" and while it is pretty hilarious, it can go into some REALLY heavy territory, especially in S3.

LibraryLass,

I also, speaking as a trans person, really don't like how it handled its allegorical trans character plotline, especially relative to how Discovery, Prodigy, and SNW have handled actual trans and nonbinary characters.

AlteredStateBlob,
AlteredStateBlob avatar

Absolutely, yeah. I like the levity of it and the recurring jokes, but they do tackle a whole lot of really difficult topics and do it really, really well. That's how it's very Trek like and why I love it.

Not to mention: It's actually nice and bright. I always loved that about old Star Trek. Why does modern Star Trek insist on everything looking like the inside of Darth Vaders helmet?

actualeyes,

@AlteredStateBlob @dumples @tymon The Federation is what makes the show Star Trek. The moral standing of the characters is established by how they follow or break federation rules. The move to the future removed the soul of the show. It was a cowardly decision likely made to avoid criticism. First 2 seasons were great.

AlteredStateBlob,
AlteredStateBlob avatar

I get why they want to show the "The federation isn't flawless either" argument, but it is being done in the most hanfisted way possible.

The most recent episode of Strange New Worlds was an okay take on it, highlighting some hypocrisy in it all, but we really don't have enough information on the legal system to understand if any of it even matters.

I agree. The Federation as a well established monolithic structure around exploration, peace and dialogue helps frame everything else that happens in the show.

Throw that out of the window and what are we left with.

Maybe it is just a symptom of this whole "This is THE HERO" thing that popular story telling has shifted towards. Picard was undoubtedly an important and great captain. He certainty had those "everything hinges on what he and his crew do next" moments, but there were always others out there alongside him. Losing Picard was a blow to the federation when he became locutus. But it didn't break them.

Now watching more modern Star Trek it feels like the only people worthwhile in the entire federation are the people on screen right now and their renegade shenanigans.

durrandon,

@AlteredStateBlob @dumples @tymon @actualeyes

This feels like an overly broad take. I agree that Discovery has some tone issues that make it feel heavy handed, but it has strong characters outside of the crew that represent a healthy Federation.

Strange New Worlds has been if anything very episodic and light, with the exception of the arrest and trial of Una, which was really the writers picking up a thread that has been hanging there since DS9.

AlteredStateBlob,
AlteredStateBlob avatar

Discovery, to me, is simply action SciFi. But what makes Star Trek Star Trek to me, isn't present at all. No self contained little adventures with moral conundrums, etc.

I'm simply not the target audience for that show, so to what I want out of Star Trek, it's not good but rather terrible. If it were simply some random SciFi Action thing, maybe, okay.

jalanhenning,
@jalanhenning@dice.camp avatar

@AlteredStateBlob @dumples @tymon @actualeyes @durrandon Great point. “New Eden” is as close as Discovery gets to that.

actualeyes,

@durrandon @AlteredStateBlob @dumples @tymon They did have some really strong characters. And then they sidelined them and made the show all about Burnham. They lost me when Burnham made Book's life more important than her crew's. It's like the writers forgot about the character defining personal sacrifice she made in the beginning of the show as well as how sacrifice defines the role of captain in Star Trek. I would have mutinied.

dumples,
dumples avatar

I enjoyed Star Trek Beyond and was ambivalent about Into Darkness so I agree with that. I think Lower Decks might be the first to watch. I have heard good things about it here. I love weird things so I think Prodigy might be next. From the initial ads Picard seemed like it was a nostalgic cash grab but if there is an excellent season I would watch it all the way through. I might watch Discovery last if you think it is skippable. It depends on how much I enjoy the rest and if I can still find it streaming by then.

Unblended,
Unblended avatar

I think I'm much too old for Prodigy or something because one episode was too much.

But Lower Decks is absolutely amazing, it's really nice to have a legitimate comedy within the honest-to-god Star Trek universe so they can just actually make fun of Riker by name.

I like Strange New Worlds alright. It's better than Discovery, and I liked Discovery fine.

Picard was great until the S1 twist and I refused to watch further. Maybe that's not fair, I found it a bit Disney-ish but wow that ending. I just have to head cannon a more respectful ending and I imagine I'll get around to it.

Though I have somehow never managed to get around to Enterprise...

vaguerant,
vaguerant avatar

I know there was some occasional friction between the fans on the old site, but I'll also throw in a recommendation for The Orville as modern Trek that's worth seeing. It does a great job capturing the spirit of the second-gen era presented for the current gen, with its cautious optimism pricked once a week by reminders of challenges yet to be resolved.

The first season is slightly rough (more proof it's a real Trek show?), as they figured out the ratio of comedy to drama, but by season three it's about as jokey as TNG. Fox did a bad job promoting it, it's definitely not Family Guy in space, which I think was probably what the network wanted it to be.

There's tons of Trek people both behind and in front of the camera, so while there's obviously no ties to the Trek canon, it's the closest anything has ever come, stylistically.

dumples,
dumples avatar

I've heard good things about Orville. I might check it out. It looks like it's on Hulu in the US so I can watch it but with ads. I hate those ads

ripcord,
ripcord avatar

Hulu does have a non-ads option if you hate ads enough.

dumples,
dumples avatar

Yeah but I hate paying money too. Classic Capitalisms Conundrum

AngrilyEatingMuffins,
AngrilyEatingMuffins avatar

Stremio + torrentio + vpn (I use mullvad) will change your life

beefcat,
beefcat avatar

I know this will be a controversial opinion, but I've enjoyed The Orvill less as it's gotten more serious. I bounced off season 4 because the first two episodes were pretty dark and depressing.

meldroc,

Strange New Worlds is great! That's the best one! I also enjoyed Picard, especially S3.

supernovae,

Yes, I've enjoyed both of these and enjoyed them on their own unique merits vs basing it on what "star trek should be". (which drives others to hate it)

julieofthespirits,

@dumples so far, Strange New Worlds is the best of the New Trek, so far it's been all killer no filler

Both Picard and Discovery have high highs and low lows, so your mileage with them will vary

dumples,
dumples avatar

I think I will wait on Picard and Discovery then. I would love to get hooked and the good shows first and then fill in

julieofthespirits,

@dumples after strange new worlds go to discovery, because there's some narrative continuity there. although the first seasons of discovery are the worst. it does get better though

McBinary,
McBinary avatar

I'm gonna go the other way and recommend Discovery before Strange New Worlds. Canonically, SNW happens after Discovery and even refers to it at times. Also, people like to hate on Discovery but I found Discovery so much better than most modern Trek. It brought dramatic cohesion to the ST universe and abandoned the silly episodic crap that had no ties with the episodes before or after it.

LibraryLass,

By and large episodic is what Star Trek fans want. At least to some extent.

theinspectorst,
theinspectorst avatar

Strange New Worlds is the best show, but Picard season 3 is by far the best single season. Picard season 3 can also be watched without needing to see season 1 (which is decent) or season 2 (which is mostly dire).

skellener,
skellener avatar

Lower Decks. Absolutely.

dumples,
dumples avatar

It looks like its on Paramount+ here in the US. I actually have that service so I will watch it all. Is this a watch straight through series?

skellener,
skellener avatar

Absolutely. You should fly through all three seasons just in time for S4 later this summer. They are only 22 minutes long.

dumples,
dumples avatar

I love a 22 minute show. I need a new show so I might start with that

sammydee,

Give it a couple of episodes (like everything Trek). I was initially unimpressed with the first episode, but then rewatched it and a few more and were hooked. And I second the suggestions to watch Strange New Worlds and deprioritize Discovery and Picard.

dumples,
dumples avatar

It usually takes a show a few episodes to get the set up plot out of the way then it gets good

FaceDeer,
FaceDeer avatar

Indeed, I almost stopped watching after the first four episodes or so because it felt like it was going to be "the Mariner show" and Mariner was really rubbing me the wrong way, she was a very annoying character. But the show course corrected over time, it brought several other main characters up to equal prominence and more importantly it started filing the annoying edges off of Mariner to make her a more well-rounded character that I actually kind of like now.

Now it's my top recommendation for modern Trek. And for Trek in general, really. The people making Lower Decks are clearly deeply in love with the setting and its history as a show.

st3ph3n,
st3ph3n avatar

All of the Star Trek stuff should be on Paramount+, although they're pulling some bullshit with Prodigy and removing it.

dumples,
dumples avatar

I hate that. I have paramount + so I'll watch it

MisterMoo,
MisterMoo avatar

Do the characters on Lower Decks eventually stop yelling every line at each other? That’s what put me off after the first couple of episodes.

vudu,

Yes. The character development improves too

yerald,

No, not really. That's pretty consistent through all the seasons.

LibraryLass,

Pretty quickly.

muddybulldog,

Strange New Worlds episodic nature makes it easy to just drop right in. Technically it starts in Discovery but I think you’ll be just fine without it.

If they dropped the SNW and just called it Star Trek, I’d be okay with that. It’s deserving of the name.

47_Alpha_Tango,
@47_Alpha_Tango@lemmy.world avatar

Watch Picard Season 3, Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks and possibly Prodigy.

Avoid all of Discovery and the first two seasons of Picard. They are the worst Star Trek has ever been and seem to exist for no other reason than to pander to the “we need to be represented” crowd.

cmdr_nova,

@47_Alpha_Tango @dumples oof bro, you know you're not on Reddit right?

allflooby,

@47_Alpha_Tango

@dumples

I love Discovery. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations...Trek should aspire to that. Also...as a queer person I appreciate seeing people like me in Trek.

47_Alpha_Tango,
@47_Alpha_Tango@lemmy.world avatar

Discovery forces in representation for representations sake. It’s not relevant to the plot at all. Like did we really need two scenes explaining that there is a non binary character? No, no we didn’t.

porthos,

I mean, some of them are inconsistent but they are all good and all of them are very much in the spirit of star trek.

Rainhall, (edited )

A lot of people in these comments sleeping on Prodigy. I think it's very good and would probably put it behind only Strange New Worlds. For me, the start of the season is just meh and feels more Star Wars Kidsy, but the season just grows and grows and has a real heart, real drama, and action.

Anticorp,

Not Picard, that's for sure. I really wanted to love that show but I could not. It isn't Trek. The storyline and characters are not even remotely Trek. They're hollow, shallow, ill-conceved storys that answer questions by waiving their hands and yelling "Borg!". Don't watch it, you'll regret it. It is beautifully made, but it's all style over sustenance.

pinwurm, (edited )

If you’re going to start a new Trek, I seriously recommend The Orville.

It’s a love letter to TNG, VOY, DS9 era Trek. Better in many ways.

It starts as a goofy comedy and the first few episodes are kind of.. okay. But by the third episode they find their footing and it just gets better and better.

The third (and possibly final) season is up there with the best of Trek. No bad episodes, and a much more serious tone. The show even has actors from ST series like Penny Jerald (Kassidy Yates in DS9) as main cast, cameos from Robert Picardo (Doctor on VOY), Tim Russ (Tuvok), John Billingsley (Dr Phlox from ENT). Also Brannon Braga produces/writes on it and Jonathan Frakes directs some episodes.

If you want to continue with TNG/VOY/DS9 era - Lower Decks is my personal favorite new Star Trek property. It’s a cartoon geared to a more adult audience, very funny - and very well written.

Strange New Worlds is the best of the new live action series. It’s episodic ‘alien of the week’ kinda vibe. It’s a spin-off from Discovery. It’s a prequel to TOS.

Discovery is a different approach. It’s season-long story archs and follows one main protagonists’ journey. It does become more about the crew later on. It had a very weak first two episodes - way too much lens flare and shaky cam. It gets a little better after but Season 1 was fairly weak. Season 2 is a huge improvement (and is the precursor to Strange New Worlds). You could start there if you read up about the characters and plot points.

Season 3 is their best - and is practically a whole different show. They flip the entire setting and premise and introduce some new characters. You could also start here if you do some light reading. Season 4 is a continuation of Season 3 - not as strong, but still solid.

I should also mention that Discovery is the least Star Treky-feeling show. It’s kinda in its own world.

Picard is pretty much fan fiction.
Some of the new characters are fun (I like Rios a lot), but the writing doesn’t do any of them any justice. Season 1 and 2 are pretty bad. If you don’t have time to kill, skip it.

Season 3 is actually the show many fans wanted. It’s pretty much like a long-format TNG sequel mini series. It has some plot holes, but it’s a real joy to watch and puts a nice bow around the series. And around TNG.

loke,

I'm going to as far as saying don't watch either the first or second season of Discovery. The first season is just bad, and the entire second season is them fixing all the continuity holes they created in the first one.

Then they send the ship away and let it do its own thing in a different timeline and all of a sudden it becomes pretty good.

I_Hate_Blackbirds,

I'm not a big fan of DIS S1 but I'd still watch it for context. Plus I absolutely loved the performances from both Michelle Yeoh and Jason Isaacs - Isaacs in particular makes S1 for me.

zloubida,
@zloubida@lemmy.world avatar

Almost all series of the third generation are serialized, so it's harder to just watch episodes separately. Most are best watched one after the other.

  • I'm not the biggest fan of Discovery, but still I think that most fans are too harsh with it. It's not the best Trek, but it has its moments and grew better and better. I wouldn't advise to begin with that, though.
  • Picard was good. The first season is maybe a little too unoriginal, but I'd say that it's a very solid season until the second half of the last episode. The second season is good, and the third is a nostalgia fest (and I loved every second of it). It may be a good entry point.
  • Lower Decks is fun and offer a very different point of view on Star Trek lore. If you like "classic" Trek but are ready to gently mock it, watch it first. I'm in love with this show.
  • Prodigy is for children, and its noticeable. It's a good show, but still, a good show for children. If that doesn't bother you, go for it, but pass if it's not the case.
  • Strange New Worlds is the best one. Simply that. It would be my advice, and, as the show is almost episodic, you can watch it taking your time.
T156,

I personally think that they’re all worth watching, but it is worth keeping in mind that they’re mostly built to appeal to different audiences, so they’re not all everyone’s cup of tea (and some of them have/had production issues that did them no favours).

The idea of the current age of Trek being “Trek for everyone”, so that instead of the same show and concepts being repeated, there would be different shows, trying their own things, aiming for different audiences.

Discovery, for example, seems to have been aimed more for people coming off of the 2009 movies/contemporary sci-fi, which has a bit more in the way of melodrama, and action. It also seems to have been something of an experimental testing ground for what Trek could be, since the show tried all sorts of things.

Meanwhile, Lower Decks is aimed for older fans who want something lighter, with its heavy doses of references to older Trek, and much more comedic style.

Prodigy was aimed at a younger audience, letting them get into Trek on their own terms, with a modern show, compared to the Funimation-based TAS, which is much more dated.

Picard seems to be a bit for “passing the torch”, as it were (basically a repeat of what Enterprise tried, but in a slightly better way), as a way to integrate both the prior Trek series, and the current ones into one smoother, cohesive whole, opening up potential issues, and setting the ground for new concepts, that later series can dive into.

Strange New Worlds is basically a modern take on “RetroTrek”, putting down a Captain of the Enterprise, and the standard 5-year mission-type plots, and is probably for people who wanted more of the old shows, but with modern effects and things instead.

_finger_,

Discovery is one of the worst shows I’ve ever seen.

Picard is awful, except the last season which was spectacular

Strange New Worlds is almost perfect Trek.

onionbaggage,

Lower Decks and Strange New Worlds are the best.

Parts of Discovery are good... Parts aren't tho.

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